No one cares about a song or a movie or a political issue–and then they do. Then it’s everywhere.

But of course, that’s precisely why. Most people feel safe when they’re engaging within the expected social norms. It’s easier to fit in and to avoid an error. Or, if that’s your thing, it’s easier to stand out in contrast to everyone else who is trying to fit in. Either way, we’re always on the lookout for a bandwagon to hop on.

The media, in their relentless search for newsstand sales, clicks and likes, seek precisely the same thing. PT Barnum figured out that putting a marching band on a wagon at the front of the parade drew a crowd, and then Dan Rice, an actual clown, realized that politicians would be eager to ride on a wagon that had a crowd, which drew others to the crowd and the cycle continued.

The math is simple: you can’t bandwagon by yourself. The nature of bandwagoning means that it will always be overrepresented in any sampling of the media.

Just because someone organized a parade doesn’t mean you have to be in it.

        

https://hotlist.sethgodin.com

Thanks for reading.

        

In high school, the quarterback isn’t allowed to call the plays, the actor isn’t allowed to write the lines and the math whiz isn’t allowed to choose what to prove.

We all grew up in the age of compliance (and indoctrination).

The long tail of the internet and the astonishing leverage of AI has made this training much less valuable.

No matter what you do for a living, there’s a machine standing by, waiting for instructions. Instructions from you, if you choose, or from your overlords if you don’t.

And following the playbook isn’t much help, because the world is changing so fast, a playbook is obsolete by the time someone hands it to you.

One reason AI got such a fast start is that it gave people seeking compliance a chance to wait for the AI to tell them what to do next. Quick, cheap answers.

AI gives bosses a cheaper (and often more compliant) alternative to hiring humans to do some tasks.

For those indoctrinated to comply, this is stressful. The stress is due to a desire to get things back to normal, to give them a chance to comply again, but right here, right now, is as normal as things are ever going to get. “Good jobs” are no longer sinecures where success comes from following instructions.

It’s an abrupt change, and winging it is insufficient. Handling this sudden transition alone is too difficult. But we have a chance to find the others, to connect and be part of a cohort that challenges, educates and encourages each other on the path to find a way forward.

We accepted that it was required to spend years being trained to handle a life of compliance. Now we have the chance to lean into the hard work we’ll need to do to thrive in an age of initiative.

        

Juan was a card magician. His students are generally considered the best working in the world today.

Wendell was a farmer and a writer. His essays on non-industrial farming and community-building will resonate for generations.

What each had in common was the patience and commitment to choose depth. To seek out the inconvenient path because it mattered.

Neither traded for easily measured metrics or convenience. Instead, they chose a path and followed it, leaving things better than they found them.

Looking back a century, it’s easy to appreciate this. And yet, each and every day, it requires a recommitment. “Under the circumstances,” it’s tempting to justify the small compromises that corrode our work. The hard part is to realize that we’re not under the circumstances; we are them. We can start today.

        

The burglars in cartoons are often seen wearing a black mask over their eyes (like Robin in Batman but for a different reason) and carrying a bulging sack over their shoulders.

[Of course, the burglar’s sack was rarely bulging. A robber would have to have the perfect haul to get the right mix of value, density and weight. You can’t fit a chest of drawers in the sack, and that much gold would be impossible to carry. But I digress.]

The cant for this was ‘swag’, which comes from an old term for swaying or bulging. Sort of wishful thinking.

And thus we get to the swag of business promo and conference loot…

Establishing jargon is a key step in group identity. It’s rarely dictated from the top down, but permitting and celebrating it is a smart move if you’re looking for group cohesion.

        

All organizations have a communications problem, and it gets worse as they grow. Which issues are we facing today? Who else is on the team? What’s changed in the environment, and what do we need to get in sync on?

Consider starting an internal podcast. Just fifteen or twenty minutes a day. The host interviews team members, informs on important issues or simply helps people see the big picture. When everyone on the team listens to the same podcast each morning, cohesion and focus improve.

A podcast with 25 of the right listeners might be exactly the right size.

The second hack: I’m amazed at how many people on the train are mindlessly swiping through one social media platform or another. Judging by their facial expressions, they’re not enjoying it much.

Instead, we can focus our time and energy on learning. Six months of commuting can easily cover an advanced college course in something that interests us. And using Claude as a Socratic tutor can be a breakthrough. If you’re driving, use voice mode. Ask it to patiently engage you, one conversation at a time, in a journey to learn something difficult. How transistors work. Why the Roman Empire fell. The origin of species.

Day by day, your commute gets better and you get smarter.

        

Let’s agree that most street signs are for folks who know where they’re going. We would label things differently if we were instructing those that don’t.

I know that you know that ERASE isn’t the same thing as DELETE, but the next person interacting with your command-line interface might not know.

Of course this is obvious when we say it so clearly. And yet, there are many kinds of USB cables, poorly named and labeled. The instructions that come with just about anything we buy were written by lawyers for juries, not by a product manager who actually wanted to inform and delight.

Design to be understood. And design so that the inevitable confusion of the newbie doesn’t get worse. Because without your active intervention, it will.

        

A company wants web traffic, so it dumbs down content, builds listicles and grows. But then others become even dumber or more convenient, so it has to race to keep up with them. Eventually, with nothing but junk, it fades away.

A company builds a reputation for delivering useful permission-based email newsletters. But it needs to grow, so it eases its rules on spam, facilitates list swaps and grabs for attention. This attracts new users, but eventually the spam filters catch on and the site (and its users) sink into the muck.

A celebrity finds their notability fading, so they appear on C and then D list reality shows until everyone is in on the joke except them…

We can justify most moves to the bottom while they’re happening, but the problem with this race is that you might win.

With effort, you might not get to the top, but without resolve, you’ll certainly find yourself at the bottom.

The alternative is to resist the temptation for fast growth and settle for trust and authority instead. The race to the top is possible, but it’s more like a patient, persistent climb.

It’s difficult, lonely and only for long-term players. That’s precisely why it’s so valuable.

If you’re not proud of it, don’t serve it.

        

Work the exact hours, do precisely what’s asked, don’t ask questions and focus on what the boss wants.

We modeled ‘good worker’ behavior in school. “Will this be on the test?” was the key question for 100 years. Do what the teacher asks for, and don’t overthink it.

The indoctrination of compliance came from factory owners. It’s easier to run an industrial operation when you can treat your workers as interchangeable cogs, not individuals.

We took that idea to schools, to communities, and even to how some engaged in spirituality.

The good worker trope falls apart when the world changes fast. It becomes a hindrance when job security wavers. And it doesn’t really pay off when AI and the atomization of work mean that most of us are the boss now, even if we are on a payroll.

It’s better to be a good leader, a resilient contributor and someone who has the insight and guts to ask why.

        

Here’s the recording.